Admin

December 13, 2013

ne of the
things that surprised me when I first started blogging was that breakfast in
the Western world (which is how I think of Europe and the US, from my home in
India) was mostly sweet. Most of India, and definitely South India has a
traditional of eating savoury breakfasts. I still find it difficult to stomach
anything sweet for the first meal of the day.

Then I
discovered a trend where people did not have the time to cook or sit down to a
good breakfast but still wanted to start off the day with something healthy ,
filling and sweet like a breakfast parfait with yogurt, fresh fruit and granola
or muesli, or maybe a Smoothie.

I am very much a
breakfast kind of person, as I tend to get really hungry in the mornings and
believe in starting my day on a comfortably filled and fuelled mode. I grew up
on traditional South Indian style savoury breakfasts and so even today, my
breakfast has to be savoury. I’m not a great fan of cereal and milk and
invariably resort to that on days when I’m unwell and don’t have much of an
appetite for food but need to eat.

While I don’t
mind having toast and an omelette on the odd day, you will find only butter (no
jam) on my toast and my omelette will be cooked Indian style with chopped
onions, tomatoes, bell peppers if I have them on hand, chopped green chillies
and coriander leaves!

A Smoothie could
never replace breakfast for me, though a smaller serving is welcome on the side
or a good thing for me to have mid-morning, especially during hot summer days. Some
people find Smoothies a healthy way to diet/ lose weight and it’s a great idea
of controlling your meal portion but making sure you’re getting the nutrition
you need. However, being the person I am, I would probably have that Smoothie
and then spend the rest of the day craving my carbs!

Still, there’s
something about Smoothies and I do enjoy them as a mid-morning filler
especially during our hot Indian summers. They’re great even during our cooler
months because where I live, the afternoons can be rather warm even in
December/ January especially if you have to step out during the middle of the
day. So it’s almost always the season here for long cold drink of any sort and
even better if one can make use of seasonal fruit in it.

What defines a
Smoothie? I don’t know if there’s a hard and fast rule about what makes a
Smoothie, but it has to be “smooth” of course, in texture and quite thick in
consistency. Traditionally, a Smoothie is made with fruit and fruit juices blended
till smooth. Over time, Smoothies have come to include dairy products like
milk, yogurt and even ice-cream. But to my mind, yogurt in a Smoothie is fine
but if there’s milk or ice-cream in it, then it becomes a “Shake”!

It’s now the
season here for Custard Apples and the ones at my local market are a variety
that is very sweet with very few seeds. This makes scooping out and eating the
chilled fruit, which is the best way to eat this fruit in my opinion, a
delight. But it’s always nice to have a recipe or two (or three or more) to use
up extra fruit that’s just sitting around.

A Smoothie or a
Milk Shake is one of the easiest things to put together and I find its one food
that everyone, even the fussiest of eaters, will almost never say no to. My
daughter though not a fussy eater, was never (and still isn’t) the greatest fan
of most fruits, but this is one way she will have them.

The Custard
apple and the banana I had were both quite sweet but my strawberries were a bit
tangy so I added a little sugar. You could add as much as you want or leave it
out altogether. You could also use honey instead of sugar.

You can add
granola or muesli to this and it becomes breakfast if you like Smoothies for
breakfast, otherwise it’s a good mid-morning snack which is how I prefer it.
You can use milk in it instead of yogurt and it makes a nice Milk Shake that’s
great along with an after school/ evening snack. Add a little milk and scoop of
ice-cream to it instead of the yogurt, and top it off with some grated
chocolate or drizzle some chocolate syrup over the top and you can serve it for
dessert!

Custard Apple
& Strawberry Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 custard apple (about 250gm)

5 to 6 large strawberries

1 medium sized banana
(optional)

3 tbsp
old-fashioned rolled oats

1 tsp vanilla
extract

2 cups thick yogurt

Sugar (optional
or to taste)

Method:

Spilt the custard
apple open, and scoop out the flesh. If your fruit has seeds, just run it in a
blender a couple of times on the slowest speed (not more or the seeds will
break up!). The seeds would have separated and would be easy to pick out. You
should have about 1/2 cup of pulp.

Put all the
fruit and the oats in the blender and blend till smooth. Now add the yogurt and
the vanilla and blend well to mix.

Pour into four
glasses and garnish according to your preference. Serve immediately. Do not
keep this refrigerated as it will change colour and change taste.

This recipe makes 4 Smoothies.

Before I end
this post, I wanted to mention one other thing. Quite a few readers of this
blog and those who follow me on Facebook, have asked throughout this year that
they would like to join my “We Knead To Bake” group where a group of
like-minded bread loving bakers bake a bread every month through the year.

After a year of
baking together, the group voted to bake along for another year so it is now
open to new members. If you’re interested in joining us and serious about
baking along with the group, please leave a request at the Facebook page of the group. Thw group will be open to new members through December, till the 30th
of the month, after which it will be closed for the year.